ECONOMY & MARKETS

The European Union's markets watchdog said on Friday it will start working on a legal definition of "greenwashing" to underpin enforcement action as trillions of euros flow into funds that are advertised as climate-friendly.

There will be no access to the European Union for Britain's derivatives clearing houses after June 2025, the bloc's financial services chief Mairead McGuinness said on Friday.

Britain suffered a smaller economic hit than feared in December as COVID-19 cases mounted, capping a historic two-year collapse and rebound for the world's fifth-biggest economy, but surging inflation is set to slow the recovery in 2022.

Whether emerging economies have already done enough to pre-empt the global central bank tightening cycle may dictate whether investors in them can escape yet another dire decade.

Singapore could return to a small budget surplus in 2022 as the economy recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic, with the government turning its focus to rebuilding public finances and an imminent tax hike after two years of unprecedented spending.

Malaysia's economy returned to growth in the fourth quarter of last year, as coronavirus curbs were lifted and economic activity resumed.

Malaysia's economy returned to growth in the fourth quarter last year with the central bank expecting the recovery to continue this year despite risks of further disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Thailand's headline inflation rate is expected to top the central bank's forecast of 1.7% this year, but should remain within its target range, central bank officials said on Friday.

Wall Street tumbled in choppy trade on Friday, European shares finished lower but still eked out their first weekly gain of the year as traders grappled with decades-high inflation and the prospect of a tightened rate hike timeline from the U.S.

Wall Street oscillated in morning trading on Friday, backing down from early gains, and benchmark Treasury yields hovered around 2% as market participants grappled with decades-high inflation and the prospect of a tightened rate hike timeline from the U.S.

Global shares dropped on Friday on rising worries over escalating Ukraine-Russia tensions and the prospect of a tightened interest rate hike timeline from the U.S.

India is hoping its labour-intensive textiles and apparel (T&A) companies will help it address a jobs crisis, and has promised to pump about $2 billion into the industry over the next few years to generate more than 1 million jobs.

At Texport Industries' factories in India's south, thousands of mostly women workers are busy converting yarn and fabrics into T-shirts, shirts, spaghetti tops and kids' clothes for U.S.

Richmond Federal Reserve Bank President Tom Barkin on Thursday said he would be "conceptually" open to raising interest rates by a bigger-than-usual half-of-a-percentage point increment, but does not see a need for it now.

Mexican investment platform Flink will begin operating in Colombia in June or July as part of its Latin America expansion plan, Chief Executive Sergio Jimenez said on Thursday.

The U.S. Treasury yield curve has been flattening over the last few months as the Federal Reserve prepares to hike rates, and some analysts are forecasting more extreme moves or even inversion.

U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday said he expected inflation to start to ease this year as supply chain logjams clear up, while saying that his administration was already helping ease shortages, as new data showed the biggest jump in consumer prices in 40 years.

The United States is seeking the first-ever consultations with Mexico over its environmental obligations under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, including protection of the critically endangered vaquita porpoise, U.S.

U.S. mortgage rates increased to a two-year high last week and could keep rising, a trend which may further squeeze first-time buyers struggling to overcome higher home prices and limited housing supply.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday proposed changing the rules of its whistleblower program to make it easier for tipsters to claim bounties.

A Canadian research note calling ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva a possible "savior" of Brazil's sluggish economy has stoked debate in financial markets over increasingly bullish foreign investors eyeing a return of the left-wing leader.

St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard said on Thursday that he has become "dramatically" more hawkish in light of the hottest inflation reading in nearly 40 years, and he now wants a full percentage point of interest rate hikes over the next three U.S.

The unexpectedly large surge in U.S. consumer prices last month has bolstered the view that the Federal Reserve is late to the fight against the strongest inflation since the early 1980s and needs to take quick action to begin to make up the lost ground.

Worried about record-high inflation, the European Central Bank may have significantly raised the threshold where it might staunch bond market sell-offs in Italy and other weaker euro bloc countries.

The European Union should not have set a time limit on how long clearing houses in Britain can continue serving customers in the bloc, Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey said on Thursday.

Most, if not all, U.S. nuclear power plants contain counterfeit or fraudulent parts, potentially increasing the risk of a safety failure, the inspector general of the federal nuclear industry regulator said in a report released on Thursday.

Investors were bracing for more market volatility after a sharper-than-expected rise in consumer prices ramped up expectations for how aggressively the Federal Reserve will need to move as it fights to tame soaring inflation.

Norway's Equinor said on Thursday it must rework its offshore wind plans at home after the government decided that the first such plants can only supply domestic power users and not link up with other countries.

Iranian oil exports have risen to more than 1 million barrels per day for the first time in almost three years, based on estimates from companies that track the flows, reflecting increased shipments to China.